


With Silk Chains Wrapped Around My Soul

by ElizabethOlsenIsMySpiritAnimal



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Angst and Feels, Canon-Typical Violence, Episode: s07e12 Victory and Death, Episode: s07e12 Victory and Death Spoilers, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Music, Mind Control, Movie: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Order 66, Post-Order 66, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Song: Demons (Against The Current), Title From An Against The Current Song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24675205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizabethOlsenIsMySpiritAnimal/pseuds/ElizabethOlsenIsMySpiritAnimal
Summary: Victory And Death, through the eyes of Jesse.
Relationships: CT-5597 | Jesse & Ahsoka Tano, CT-5597 | Jesse & CT-7567 | Rex
Comments: 13
Kudos: 71





	With Silk Chains Wrapped Around My Soul

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LanaBenikoisBestGirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LanaBenikoisBestGirl/gifts).



//

Jesse wonders, not for the first time, and not for the last, if this is what hell feels like.

He’d always - because of course he did - assumed that hell was a place where the Seppies tormented you day in and out with the infernal chattering of their stupid battle droids. But now, as he curls up into a ball and watches himself walk down a hallway, barking out orders, he figures that he knows what hell truly is.

Hell is when you get to watch your life’s work come down.

“I want squads marshaled-” Jesse closes his eyes and ignores what the _thing_ his body has become is saying. There’s no point in trying to listen, he knows what his body is doing, it’s what _he’d_ do if he were in a sane frame of mind and his opponent was the Sith Lord rampaging around the Star Destroyer he’s on.

How did it come to this?

He heard a rumor, a long time ago--well, maybe not _that_ long ago but long enough, that Fives had discovered _something_ related to the Clones, but he’d been killed before he could explain just what it was. Kix went missing in the days after Anaxes, when the 501st had been redeployed from the Core World planet to the Outer Rim proper, and Jesse had assumed he’d been lost in battle--they had taken a number of losses after Grievous’ recent string of pushes.

But now...now he thinks that whoever did this to him and the others is responsible for what happened to Fives and Kix.

An hour ago, Jesse was in the armory, trying to get a semblance of control back over his life. It feels like a whole ‘nother life--it may very well be, now that he’s simply watching as his body moves of its own accord, as a monster that was living in his head takes the wheel and drives around, burning everything he loves with extreme prejudice, maniacal glee, and what can only be a level of sadism that Jesse knows he doesn’t have within him. 

Somewhere in front of him, large bay doors open, and with mechanical precision, he marches forward, falling in line with a number of other brothers. They move like soldiers but not like themselves, and he watches with a sense of resignation as he mechanically marches to the front of the impromptu blockade.

“Hold your positions men, if they try to leave, they’ll have to go through us.”

That’s Jesse’s voice, but not Jesse himself, speaking. What Jesse is screaming is thus-- _Help! Help, Commander Tano, Captain Rex, somebody, anybody, help!_ But no sound comes forth from his lips, which remain shut as he looks up through his eyes - no, the _monster’s eyes_ \- at the control tower he can vaguely see the frames of Rex and Ahsoka in. 

He’s given up on trying to take back control from the thing inside his head, there’s no point.

A minute passes, maybe two, and Jesse waits, watches patiently. He knows how this will play out, either Rex and Tano will attempt and escape and be cut down - _no, no, they need to escape, oh god someone has to_ \- or they stay in their little tower and die when they hit the ground. 

“Hold your fire!”

Evidently, they’ve decided it’ll be the former. Jesse stares with horrified eyes as Rex and Ahsoka - _the traitors,_ the chip reminds him - step out into the bay, into the line of fire. Jesse’s aware that he’s saying something about rerouting the other clones not in the bay to his position, but he doesn’t listen, because he’s wondering _what the hell are those two doing?_

If he was there, instead of Rex, he would be telling Ahsoka to run for the shuttle, he’ll hold the enemy off for as long as he can. Instead, Jesse watches as Rex argues semantics with the _monster_ borrowing his body, something about how Order 66 - _kill the Jedi, kill the Jedi, good soldiers follow_ \- doesn’t include Ahsoka because she’s not a Jedi. Jesse is faintly aware of him arguing something back, demanding that Rex kill Ahsoka or _he_ will and he doesn’t, he really, _really_ doesn’t-

“Jesse, please, we’ve known each other a long time-”

-and for a moment, the monster’s grasp slips. For just a moment, Jesse seizes control of his body, lowering his pistols for just a moment. He claws for every inch of control - the monster fights back - and through his visor, he meets the eyes of Rex.

_Captain, help me-_

He wonders how Ahsoka saved the man from the Order. The fact that they were in a medical bay suggests whatever this is can be removed, or stymied, or at least held at bay long enough for a proper solution to be devised. If he can just-

**_No._ **

-and Jesse’s control slips. He howls, tries to grab the reins again, but it’s like grabbing onto a greased pole, like trying to cling to a smooth surface without the proper tools, like-

**_I will not be denied._ **

_Please, please don’t make me kill my friends-_ He begs the Force, every known deity he can recite, anyone who will listen, to help him-

**_I am all there is._ **

-and then Jesse is gone again, thrown back into the passenger seat to watch as his body points his guns at Rex once more. “Commander Rex, you’re in violation of Order 66-” His lips say, as the fingers tighten on the triggers. For a moment, Rex does nothing, then he turns back and speaks to Ahsoka, just as Jesse hears himself issue commands to the men behind him.

“Ready, aim-”

-and then the ground drops out beneath him. Jesse crashes hard against the floor, men unconscious and dazed around him, and it _hurts._ Jesse watches himself press his body to his feet, open fire on Ahsoka - and _how_ did she end up dangling over the side with a droid trying to yank her back up? Despite his _very_ spirited attempts at killing her, Tano evades his shots and jumps back over the side, runs out of sight, and he hears himself howling at his subordinates to find a way to get them back onto the deck. A couple of minutes later, Ahsoka and Rex crash back onto their level, and that isn’t necessary at all.

“Blast them!”

Rex fires - stun blasts, Jesse notes, and ruefully he wishes the Captain had the spine to simply shoot to kill, grant them at least the mercy of death - and Ahsoka parries, the duo running in sync towards the other side of the hangar. Jesse and his men follow, firing, heedless of how many men fall from reflected blaster shots or Rex’s own fire. He lines up a shot, aiming for Ahsoka’s head-

-and then the ground falls out from beneath him.

As the ship tilts wildly and he and his men go sliding along the floor, scrabbling for purchase and screaming for help, Jesse catches a glimpse of Rex engaging a Y-Wing’s engines, of Ahsoka leaping for the ship, grabbing on-

-and then the world is tilting and falling and-

-and he doesn’t care. Jesse falls through the hangar, hearing the wind howl against his ears and buffet his armor. Distantly, through the smoke and chaos, he can see brothers falling, falling, screaming, fighting for one more moment, but he doesn’t do the same. Distantly, he sees the Y-Wing fly off, somewhere far away, and Jesse knows that his Captain and his Jedi are safe, safe from the madness that overtook the ship. In the last, last moment before impact, Jesse closes his eyes, and feels nothing, nothing but peace.

Dimly, he thinks he hears a terrible crunch, and then-

//

Jesse’s body is the last one to be recovered.

Rex sets his brother’s body down on the ground, and gingerly, carefully removes his helmet, that blue-and-white shell with the symbol of the Republic emblazoned upon it. He expects to see something, _anything,_ on Jesse’s face, anger, disappointment, betrayal, but he sees that Jesse’s face is frozen in a calm, peaceful expression. His eyes are shut, like he’d been sleeping, and he looks almost happy. 

Rex buries his oldest, last remaining brother with all the reverence he deserves, and sets the man’s helmet gingerly atop the pole that marks where Jesse - designation CT-5597, ARC Trooper and Lieutenant of the Grand Army of the Republic - was laid to rest. Then, he gives his fallen lieutenant a final salute, his brother deserves that much at the very least.

“Be at peace, Jesse.” Ahsoka whispers to the silent monument, when Rex has returned to the Y-Wing and she has left her sabers at the foot of where her men are buried. As she turns back towards Rex, to leave this forsaken place, the wind picks up, and she thinks she hears a voice, thinks she hears Jesse.

_I am.  
_

//


End file.
